Tuesday, February 23, 2016

The ultimate political chameleon, Trump was a wealthy, secular, country club Republican who bragged of hiring illegal aliens

and his name is The Donald. The Right’s queen of wit has fallen head over heels for Donald Trump,
the candidate who forced the GOP to talk about the issue of illegal
immigration.

My feelings about Coulter are mixed. I enjoy her columns and always
buy her books when they come out, even if I don’t always agree with
everything she says. She, like Trump, revels in shocking liberals, which
goes a long way toward explaining the attraction. Admittedly, it’s not
difficult to shock liberals, who take offense at things like colorblind
hiring, the American flag, and virtue. I admire Coulter’s sass but I
frequently question her judgement when it comes to picking political
candidates. Over the years she’s endorsed Ron Paul, Chris Christie, and
Mitt Romney; all duds in my book.

But never before has she been so enthusiastic about a candidate as
she has been about Donald Trump because he speaks to the issue that she
cares the most about—illegal immigration. It’s an issue that many
Americans, particularly many conservative Republicans, care about. Until
recently we have had no audience in Washington for our concerns.
Neither party seems willing to crack down on rampant lawlessness and one
party clearly encourages it by portraying the lawbreakers as victims.
They told us that no one should have to “live in the shadows;” as if
illegal immigrants weren’t boasting of their lawbreaking on television
and being invited to the White House. Where are these “shadows” liberals
are always talking about? They certainly can’t be found in our two
hundred plus “sanctuary cities” where federal law is null and void.

… Unfortunately, Ann Coulter has become a single issue pundit, focusing
her attention for the better part of two years on illegal immigration.
Her excellent book “Adios, America: The Left’s Plan to Turn Our Country
Into a Third World Hellhole” is filled with startling facts about the
Mexification (and Somalification, Hmongification) of America …

… As someone who’s read “Adios, America” and most of her columns, I
think I can summarize her views on illegal immigration, which I mostly
agree with. According to Coulter, no other issue matters because if
Democrats bring in poor immigrants by the boatload they will sweep to
power and shape policy on everything including guns, crime, taxes, and
the culture wars. As the saying goes, if immigrants and their children
were destined to vote Republican even Harry Reid would join the
Minutemen to defend our border.

What motivates the Democrats is not
compassion for the downtrodden but naked self-interest. Coulter
explained her position in an interview with the Daily Signal’s Genevieve
Wood:

“It’s the only issue because once we have only Americans voting
again we can win those other issues. If we keep dumping—and oh
my gosh, if amnesty goes through well then it’s over overnight. As soon
as they become voters, that’s 30 million voters for the Democrats.”

… Coulter appears not to know this, as she told Charles Cooke of National
Review: “He has certainly been consistent on caring about illegal
immigration.” Donald Trump has not been consistent on the issue
of illegal immigration. He’s a flip-flopper, a fact that should
surprise no one because Trump is the ultimate political chameleon. He’ll
say whatever he has to say to secure power. In that regard he’s not
unlike Barack Obama…with fewer scruples.

… My theory is that Trump was considering a run for the White House but
hadn’t yet decided which party would better serve him or which views he
should pretend to hold. He doesn’t instinctively know these things
because Trump has no core principles. Instead he has interests, and right now he believes that those interests are best served by focusing on this issue.

To Trump’s credit, and I don’t give him much, he has his finger on
the pulse of America. He reasoned, not incorrectly, that people are sick
of Obama and that he could ride the tidal wave of disgust all the way
to the presidency. He zeroed in on this issue not because he gives a
hoot (he doesn’t) but because he thinks that it will ultimately pay
dividends, which it may. It’s just business; and Donald Trump is the
consummate businessman; except for all the bankruptcies, of course.

What Ann Coulter doesn’t see is that Donald Trump fits the profile of
the amnesty shill to a tee. Before he was a thorn in the side of the
pro-amnesty GOP establishment he was part of that establishment; or at
least he was fully qualified to be a member. He was a wealthy, secular,
country club Republican who bragged of hiring illegal aliens
for cripes sake! As many conservatives have argued, they can’t get the
corporatist Republicans to enforce the law because they see illegal
aliens as a source of cheap labor. Don’t forget that The Donald was one
of those corporatist Republicans just two short years ago; and before
that he was a Democrat who partied with the Clintons, praised Barack
Obama, and donated to Planned Parenthood.

But surely Donald Trump will fulfill his campaign promise, right? If
it suits him he will. He will of course be thinking of a second term and
it might be difficult to get reelected if he angers the people who
supported him the first time around, though the same could be said of a
candidate like Ted Cruz, who is supposedly only jumping on Trump’s
bandwagon. I would argue that Trump has jumped on Cruz’s bandwagon, a
man who fought to defeat the Schumer-Rubio amnesty bill.